Two minutes and eight seconds into Tuesday’s district and regional showdown at Harlan County, Bell County freshman Jaxon Thomas launched the game’s first shot from the corner and connected on a 3.
It was clear at that point the young Bobcats had no intention of running with Harlan County and hoped to stay close to be in position for the upset at the end.
The strategy worked for two and a half quarters as the Bobcats trailed by 11. It doesn’t take long this year for the Bears to turn an 11-point deficit into 18, which is what Reggie Cottrell and Trent Noah did during a three-minute stretch later in the third period to send HCHS to a 78-53 victory.
“We’ve played against people who have done that, and we kind of figured that’s what they’d do,” Harlan County coach Kyle Jones said after the Bears improved to 20-2 overall and 4-0 in district action. “We knew we just had to sit down and guard and if we get up they have to start playing our way. I thought our defensive effort tonight was as good as it’s been in a while, and that’s what I told them after the game. Reggie was phenomenal and played with so much energy. Maddox (Huff) guarded really well. They all did and did what we told them to. I thought we fed off the energy from our defense. That’s what we have to do to reach our goals this year.”
“I thought we played a little better than we did early on the last time,” said Bell County coach Brad Sizemore. “We had some success doing some things against Boyd County (in the 2A state tournament last week), and we wanted to try that tonight. We didn’t necessarily want to slow the game completely down, but we wanted to get good shots. We were setting a lot of screens and moving the ball and got off to a good start, but Harlan County has a really good team. Every time we got close, they had guys step up and hit shots. To stay in this type of game, we’ll have to put 32 minutes together.”
Noah scored 31 to lead the Bears. Cottrell and Huff added 18 and 16 points, respectively.
The 16-3 Bobcats featured a balanced attack with Blake Burnett scoring 13 followed by Cameron Hall, Jaxon Thomas and Ethan Buell with 12 each.
“Our kids played really hard. I don’t think we were as nervous as the first game, but every time we made a little run, Trent stepped up and made a contested shot. Maddox did the same thing,” Sizemore said. “They can put five guys on the floor who can hit shots. That’s why we have to continue to get better. I like our group and feel we’ve continued to improve.”
Harlan County travels to Middlesboro on Friday for a district girls/boys doubleheader. Bell County will play Ryle on Saturday in the Hoosier Gym in Indiana.